Gossip
by PuppyNoelle
Summary: Women love to gossip. For women in the Academy, the favorite topic of such gossip is Director Hope Estheim. FFXIII2. HopexVanille.


_Gossip_

Description: Women love to gossip. For women in the Academy, the favorite topic of such gossip is Director Hope Estheim.

* * *

It was 400AF. Noel and Serah had just left to find graviton cores, and Hope Estheim was torn between his excitement and his exhaustion. He felt like a high performance car that had been running on all eight cylinders and was nearly out of fuel. He could tell that he only had one final push left in him, and his time for using that last bit of fuel was nearly here.

He _couldn't wait_ to free Vanille and Fang from the crystal pillar. After that, he knew he would be able to relax. He would finally be free to be himself, he would be free from the most difficult of his work, and he would be free from this stupid "I am the perfect public figure" charade. He _wasn't_ perfect- far from it, in fact. Yet so many people idolized him and _idealized_ him. He was human, just like the rest of the people in the Academy's huge cafeteria.

The platinum haired man quickly got his food, and found a relatively quiet corner where he could both eat and work in peace.

"Oooh, look, _there he is!_" he heard a woman whisper to her friend as he sat down a few feet away from them.

"He's so _dreamy!_" the woman's friend whispered back.

Hope wasn't sure if they didn't _know_ that he could actually hear him, or if they just didn't _care_ that he could hear them. Either way, he heard every word of their hushed conversation.

"And have you heard? He's _single!_"

_Oh fantastic, _he thought. Just what he needed was women gossiping about his _sex life_- or rather, the big lack thereof.

"_Really?_ He's too _gorgeous_ to be single. How is that even _possible_?"

"I'll bet he's a _player_. He's _never_ had a steady girlfriend apparently."

He rolled his eyes as he stared at the screen of his laptop. _Him? _A _player?_ Puh-_lease_. It wasn't _his fault_ that the girl he was in love with was presently a _crystal_. Otherwise, he probably would have married Vanille the exact _moment_ he turned eighteen, when it was legal to do so. Instead here he was, a twenty-seven year old virgin, who had spent the latter half of his life pining over his childhood love. And these women had the _nerve_ to think he was a _player?_ He didn't have enough _time_ to go out and pick up strange women, use them, and then leave them.

"I heard that he dated that one singer- what was her name again?"

"Oh! You mean _Elida Karmic_? Yeah, I heard they were an item in high school or something."

Hope tried his damnedest to _not_ react. Somehow he knew _that_ would come back to haunt him. He _hadn't_ dated Elida- they were friends, that was all. Well… at least to _him_ that was all there had been. _She_ had a crush on him for a while, but by the time they were both grown, she had moved on. She had actually married one of his university friends, an engineer named Darryl, who also happened to be an excellent guitarist.

"Has he dated anybody _else_ since?"

"I don't think so. I have heard a rumor that he's sleeping with his assistant, that Alyssa girl."

He had to bite his lower lip _hard_ to keep himself from spewing his tea all over his laptop. _Gross_. Not that Alyssa wasn't _pretty_, he supposed she was, however most of the time, _he couldn't stand her_. She had the _brains_ to help him accomplish his goals, but on a personal level, she was a pain in the ass. She was incredibly _clingy_ and _pushy_, and it was obvious that she always put _herself_ first. She was, for the most part, kind to other people- though she usually got out with some sort of payoff. He didn't exactly _trust _her, but he couldn't really _distrust_ her either. He couldn't stand being around her, but at the same time he couldn't leave her alone for too long either. Alyssa needed to be _controlled_, while simultaneously _thinking_ that _she_ was the one in control.

"No, I don't think so. Have you ever _seen_ him around her? My boyfriend works in the research lab, and he says that mostly the Director just looks _annoyed_ with her."

"Then why did he _time travel_ with her?"

"Maybe she has some _dirt _on him, or something, and he only puts up with her so she won't blackmail him."

This time Hope wanted to laugh. The only _dirt_ anybody could possibly use to blackmail him with was the fact that he was in love with Vanille. And that fact was one that _no one_ alive today knew. It was his best guarded secret. Not even his friends knew. Though he suspected that Serah had some _inkling_ of an idea that his feelings for their ginger haired friend were actually deeper than he let on. Regardless, his secret was _safe_.

"What about the Daughters of the Goddess? Wasn't one of them around his age when they destroyed Orphan?"

The platinum haired man dropped his fork. The gossiping women didn't seem to notice.

"_Oh yeah! _You think maybe he dated _her_ while they were saving the world? Which one was the younger one again?"

"I think it was the red-haired one. _Vanilla_ or something like that. They had strange names."

"_Vanille_," he accidentally spoke aloud, correcting the woman.

Both women stared at him with bewildered eyes.

"Oh _shit._ He heard us."

Hope felt the heat of embarrassment rise into his cheeks. He attempted to play it cool.

"_Vanilla_ is the word her name is derived from though," he informed them matter-of-factly, "It was tradition in Oerba to give names based upon something naturally occurring that they saw or used in everyday life."

Both women continued to stare at him, with jaws slack. Finally, one of them grew brave enough to speak.

"How much of our conversation did you _actually _hear?"

"All of it," he answered mechanically, his embarrassment was gone now, in light of the fact that the two gossipers were even _more_ mortified than he. "And just to let you know, none of those rumors are true. I have never dated _anyone_ before. I'm just an old hermit, I suppose," he finished with a wry smile on his lips.

He then promptly returned his full attention to his food and his laptop.

Of course, he wouldn't be a hermit _forever_. One day, one hundred more years into the future, he would free Vanille and Fang from their crystals. Then he would do whatever it took to make Vanille _his. _Only _then_ would he allow himself to indulge in those basic human desires of _romance_ and _sex_.

_Screw the gossip_- he finally decided. People could think whatever they wanted to about him. _He_ knew the truth, and somehow, he felt confident that Vanille would know it, too. Regardless of what people said, she would accept him _exactly_ as he was. That was all he needed.

* * *

~fin


End file.
